MOTT - Nathan Swindler wants to be a farmer, like his dad, grandpa and great-grandpa.

He's only 23 and trying to buy farmland around Mott feels like going to a battle. Only guys with a lot of money win.

Land values are high in Hettinger County, going in excess of $600 and $700 an acre.

That's money he doesn't have.

Swindler believes the big number of Hettinger County acres enrolled in the federal Conservation Reserve Program only makes the land battle more of a long shot for guys like him.

There are two reasons for that.

The first is that conservation acres get a guaranteed federal payment, averaging $32 an acre in North Dakota. When the land is sold, the payments transfer to the new owner so there's automatic income for land investors.

The second is that the conservation acres, which are seeded to grass and alfalfa instead of crops, have become some of the best pheasant habitat in the Great Plains. Hunters love the bird havens and are willing to pay top dollar.

Swindler and other young farmers would like to see fewer acres tied up in CRP and more acres available for farming.

Some land that was awarded a CRP contract because of erosion is farmable, he believes.

The days of black fields blowing in the wind and eroding into creeks and waterways are primarily over. Farmers seed a new crop right into last year's stubble, using chemicals instead of plows to control weeds. It's called no-till or minimum till.

"Farming is a lot different than it used to be 20 years ago, even 10 years ago," Swindler said.

It looks like the CRP program will soon be much different than it was 20, even 10 years ago, too.

Young farmers like Swindler may have more land to rent or buy.

Here's why.

A new emphasis

Landowners in Hettinger County and every county will get a letter this spring announcing one of the biggest changes in the CRP's 20-year history.

First off, rather than sign new contracts, the government will extend existing CRP contracts.

Instead of the usual 10-year contracts, the USDA plans to make 80 percent of the extensions much shorter, from five down to two years.

Only the most environmentally beneficial CRP acres will get a 10-year extension and even those will only represent 20 percent of all contracts.

The same environmental benefit index will be used to determine which acres get five-, four-, three-, or two-year extensions.

Each category will make up 20 percent of the total.

The environmental benefit index takes into account wildlife benefit, water and air quality and soil erosion. The "score" will be based on the original contract application.

Land in the prairie pothole region east and north of the Missouri River in North Dakota will automatically get 25 extra environmental points under a conservation priority.

Jim Jost, a CRP specialist with the Farm Service Agency in Fargo, said it's a classic good news, bad news situation.

The good news is that every landowner will get his contract extended. The bad news is that the extensions may be quite short.

Gene Zimmerman, who heads up the Hettinger County FSA office, said he doesn't expect acres there to score well.

Few CRP acres were seeded to native grasses, which would have meant a higher environmental score, because the seed is expensive and hard to get established.

"I think we will have a lot of contracts extended for two or three years," Zimmerman said. "That could be their way of saying, 'That's it.' It would appear CRP is on its way out."

This is a chicken that will come home to roost very soon in Hettinger and other southwestern North Dakota counties.

The change will affect the 2007 signup.

That's a year when half of the contracts expire, because they're either in their first, or second 10-year contract under a program that's 20 years old.

Hettinger County has the most CRP acres in the southwest, with 114,200 acres.

Contracts on half, or 58,800 acres will expire in 2007 and in all likelihood be subjected to the new, far shorter extensions.

In Adams County, 45,000 of 73,000 CRP acres will be up for extensions in 2007. The situation is similar, though on a smaller scale, in Bowman, Stark and Golden Valley counties.

Zimmerman said he thinks landowners will take the short extensions. It may not do much more than delay the inevitable, but it will give them time to make a plan.

What's ahead

Jost, the state CRP specialist, said North Dakota CRP contracts in general haven't fared well when they've come up for renewal in recent years.

Only 10 percent of North Dakota contracts were accepted in 2004. In 2003, only 8 percent were.

Jost said the plan to extend existing contracts for a relatively short number of years will spread out the "mushroom," so big numbers, like those in 2007, don't occur in the future.

Depending on the next farm bill, the extensions may be no more ominous than a desire to even out the Farm Service Agency's workload.

Or, they may signal a significant change ahead for landowners who've been paid to idle land for up to 20 years.

If southwestern North Dakota's erodable acres are phased out of the program in favor of wetlands and other environmental benefits, Zimmerman said landowners would have to decide what to do.

Their choices will be to put it back to crops, though fuel and fertilizer costs could remain at record highs, or leave it as grass and hay land for cattle and wildlife.

He said there's a strong rental market for cropland.

"It would all be rented no problem," he said. "It wouldn't take long. But there's a lot of land that should have never been broken up in the first place."

Alan Honeyman, of Regent, said the loss of CRP acres would force him to farm some of his poorer land.

He's got about 1,200 acres in CRP and half comes up for renewal in 2007.

Honeyman said he's hoping for a three-year extension.

"The way I feel today, I would probably leave it to grass," Honeyman said. "If I broke it up, it wouldn't make much crop."

He said he thinks the availability of CRP land on the market would drive down both land values and cash rent prices.

"That's not all bad," he said.

(Reach Lauren Donovan at 701-748-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)